Nitish Kumar asks Congress, Left to take lead on grand alliance

While the Bihar assembly elections showed how the BJP could be defeated, the Uttar Pradesh elections revealed that a split opposition would be pushed to the periphery and made insignificant. It’s a no-brainer which formula is best suited for the Opposition parties.

Holding the successful Bihar template, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday called for a similar grand alliance of opposition parties at the national level to stop the BJP surge. He urged the Congress and the Left parties to take the lead.

“A Bihar-like grand alliance is the solution to check the surge of the BJP and for this, the Congress and the Left parties should take the initiative,” said Kumar, who is also the JD(U) national president. “A 'mahagathbandhan' like this at the national level will be 'mahasafal' (a grand success),” he claimed.

Meanwhile, his rival-turned-ally Lalu Prasad tweeted that the opposition leaders should do away with their ego and join hands to “save the Constitution and the country.” Lalu should know better. After the severe drubbing the RJD and the JD(U) received at the hustings in the 2014 general elections, the pragmatic politician joined hands with his bete-noire, Kumar, and campaigned extensively for the grand alliance that included the Congress. Their massive victory had beaten every forecast.

However, a grand alliance didn’t work out in Uttar Pradesh as BSP chief Mayawati was ostensibly not for a pre-poll alliance. The Samajwadi Party too—apart from its internal family strives—was perhaps not ready either to join hands with its bitter rival. That may possibly change now.

“The BJP's victory in Uttar Pradesh was mainly because of lack of a Bihar-like 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) there... If you add the vote percentage of the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the BSP, it is 10% more than the votes polled by the BJP,” Kumar told mediapersons in Patna.

“Being a bigger party, it is the Congress' responsibility to take the initiative of bringing all major non-BJP parties on one platform. I had talks with some Left leaders in this connection and I wish they take an initiative to this effect to throw the BJP-led NDA out of power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” he said. It may be recalled that Kumar and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi enjoy a good rapport, and that did help in forging the alliance with Lalu, said to be a bit reluctant at first.

The Congress and Left parties, however, seemed to agree with Kumar’s contention. “The need of the hour is for all the secular parties to join hands. Else, the communal forces will completely take over,” said senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily.

CPI(M) leader Mohammad Salim said that Kumar had “every right” to espouse the Bihar formula and stressed that the secular political parties should close ranks to stop the “religious-fascistic and fissiparous tendencies”. CPI leader D Raja warned that a “fascist rule” was emerging and it was necessary to understand how to counter it, together.

Things may have already started in that direction. Recently, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar NCP asked all like-minded parties to come together to counter the BJP. He had pointed out that Yogi Adityanath becoming UP Chief Minister would give a boost to "mandir-masjid" politics. There’s already a talk of Opposition parties consolidating for the Gujarat Assembly polls slated later this year. That may well mark the beginning of Opposition parties consolidating before the 2019 general polls.

With PTI inputs.